Cool Images: A Colorful —and Halloween-Inspired—Collection
Transformations aren’t just for people or pets around Halloween. Scientific images also can look different than you might expect, depending on how they’re photographed. Check out these tricky-looking images and learn more about the science behind them.
Credit: Nilay Taneja, Vanderbilt University, and Dylan T. Burnette, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Do you have a hunch about what this image is? Perhaps something to do with dry leaves? It’s a human fibroblast cell undergoing cell division, or cytokinesis, into two daughter cells. Cytokinesis is essential for the growth and development...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - October 31, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Cells Biofilms Cellular Imaging Cool Images Source Type: blogs
Wild poliovirus type 3 declared eradicated
Today, on World Polio Day, wild poliovirus type 3 has been declared eradicated by a commission of the World Health Organization. The last case of type 3 poliomyelitis was recorded in 2012 in Nigeria. As wild poliovirus type 2 was declared eraidcated in 2015, now only wild poliovirus type 1 continues to circulate, causing paralysis […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - October 24, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information IPV OPV polio eradication poliovirus type 2 poliovirus type 3 poliovirus vaccine viral viruses Source Type: blogs
Polio returns to the Philippines
Cases of poliomyelitis have been reported in the Philippines 19 years after the country was declared free of the disease. The return of poliomyelitis to the country emphasizes the need to maintain high levels of immunization while polioviruses continue to circulate. The blame for the return of poliomyelitis is the drop in immunization rates to […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - September 26, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information eradication OPV Philippines poliomyelitis poliovirus type 2 poliovirus vaccine vaccine-associated poliovirus viral viruses Source Type: blogs
The rarity of paralysis following poliovirus infection
After infection with poliovirus, only about 1% of individuals develop paralysis. I have always wondered whether genetic polymorphisms underlie the rarity of this disease outcome. The results of study carried out in Denmark provide the first insights. The study group consisted of 17 individuals who developed poliomyelitis in the pre-vaccine years, 1940-1950, and one who […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - September 11, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information genetic susceptibility paralysis poliomyelitis poliovirus single nucleotide polymorphism SNIP viral viruses Source Type: blogs
Why do parents worry about vaccines?
We are in the midst of a measles epidemic. As of July 25th, more than 1,100 cases have been reported in 30 states since the beginning of the year. That’s the highest number since 1992 — and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. Given that measles is extremely contagious — the virus can linger in rooms even after a sick person has left — and can lead to serious complications, this is really alarming.
There is a simple way to help: get more people immunized.
How many children receive vaccines?
Most children in the US are immunized. Only a little more than 1% of children have no immunizations. This is importa...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 2, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs
TWiV 553: Polio with David Oshinsky
Vincent speaks with David Oshinsky, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Polio: An American Story, about the history of poliovirus vaccines. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 553 (40 MB .mp3, 66 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - June 25, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology Source Type: blogs
Why Measles Making the News Is a Sign of Progress
A set of measles outbreaks in Washington state, New York City, and elsewhere, is making national headlines and frightening parents around the United States. Counter-intuitively, measles making the news is a sign of progress. Not long ago, measles was so common that it was simply not newsworthy. Suffer ing from the extremely infectious disease, which causes spotty rashes and a hacking cough, was widespread and often deadly.It was once the case that even royalty fell victim to diseases now easily preventable with routine shots given during childhood. Measles killed the un-vaccinated King Kamehameha II of Hawaii, a...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 15, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Chelsea Follett Source Type: blogs
Autism Is But One Part of a Complex Personality Structure
April is Autism Awareness Month. To review: Autism is one of the five pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) listed in the DSM 5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) which provides diagnostic guidelines for mental health professionals. Autism is characterized by difficulties in social interactions, a narrow and particular range of interests and repetitive behaviors. Although it is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, research has yet to identify the differences in the brain that determine what makes people with autism different from the norm.
Since the combination of attributes can b...
Source: World of Psychology - April 15, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D. Tags: Aspergers Autism Communication anti-vaccination Asperger Syndrome Autism Awareness Month Autism Spectrum Disability polio Stereotypes Stigma Source Type: blogs
The Far Right Goes Anti-Vax
A phenomenon which has always puzzled me is popular resistance to vaccination. It goes back to the very beginning, vaccination against smallpox, which was a terrible scourge that killed 30% of its victims and left the rest disfigured. When Edward Jenner proved in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox, which caused only mild disease, conferred immunity to smallpox, the world was given a priceless gift.Yet popular movements arose almost immediately to oppose vaccination, both in England and the U.S. Eventually smallpox vaccination became widely accepted, and smallpox was eradicated from the earth. Later, the terror of the polio ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 21, 2018 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
From Russia with Money - Harvard Medical School Accepts $200 Million from Russian Emigre with Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Putin, and Who Is Under Investigation for US Election Meddling
We present a big case of what looks like an entirely new, and very troubling variation on an institutional conflict of interest.A " Transformative " Gift to Harvard Medical SchoolOn November 8, 2018, Felice Freyer, writingin the Boston Globe, documented a huge new gift to Harvard Medical School.Harvard Medical School has received a $200 million donation— the largest in its history — to support research into fundamental questions about human illness and health.The pledge,from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, will enable the school to hire researchers, add to its advanced technology, and a build an ' incubator ' in the L...
Source: Health Care Renewal - November 18, 2018 Category: Health Management Tags: conflicts of interest crime Donald Trump Harvard Harvard Medical School institutional conflicts of interest oligarchy revolving doors Russia Source Type: blogs
AFM: The scary polio-like illness
It is a scary illness, not just for parents but for doctors, too: Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) causes sudden weakness and loss of muscle tone in the arms and legs and can go on to cause even more serious problems.
It’s not just the symptoms that are scary. It’s also scary because we don’t know what causes it. Although the symptoms are similar to polio, patients with AFM have tested negative for polio. At one point it was thought that it was caused by another enterovirus, but that didn’t end up being the explanation. It may be another virus, or it may be some sort of toxin, or something else entirely — or perhaps ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 9, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Neurological conditions Parenting Source Type: blogs
The Migrant Caravan, Central America, and Vaccination Rates
Many commentators have recentlywritten andsaid that members of the migrant caravan and Central American immigrants in general are diseased. Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Ward claimed that the migrants are “coming in with diseases such as smallpox,” a disease that the World Health Organization (WHO) certified as beingeradicated in 1980. One hopes Mr. Ward was more careful in enforcing American immigration law than in spreading rumors that migrants are carrying one of the deadliest diseases in human history nearly 40 years after it was eradicated from the human population. But even on oth...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 1, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
TWiV 504: Flying foxes and barking pigs
The TWiVerinos discuss Nipah virus and the recent outbreak in India, and the first cast of polio in Papua New Guinea in 18 years. <span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span><span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span>&lt;span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; wi...
Source: virology blog - July 29, 2018 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology date palm sap henipavirus Nipah virus outbreak Papua New Guinea poliovirus Smithsonian Institution vaccine viral viruses Source Type: blogs
Vaccine opponents think they know more than medical experts. Why is that?
One of the most contentious areas of health policy over the past two decades has been the safety of vaccination. Vaccines prevent the outbreak of diseases that used to be widespread, like polio, and scientific consensus strongly supports their safety. Yet many Americans refuse or delay the vaccination of their children out of fear that it could lead to autism, even though scientific consensus refutes this claim.
Anti-vaccine attitudes have been fueled in large part by growing rates of autism diagnoses as well as a now debunked study in The Lancet that linked autism and the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine – pushing ma...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 25, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/matthew-motta-steven-sylvester-timothy-callaghan" rel="tag" > Matthew Motta, PhD, Steven Sylvester, PhD, and Timothy Callaghan, PhD < /a > Tags: Conditions Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
Papua New Guinea is no longer polio-free
Last week we discussed the case of polio in Venezuela that turned out not to be polio. Unfortunately the same cannot be concluded about a bona fide case of polio in Papua New Guinea. Surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) revealed a 6 year old boy in Papua New Guinea with lower limb weakness on […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - June 27, 2018 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information cVDPV OPV Papua New Guinea poliovirus Sabin vaccine reversion viral viruses vrus Source Type: blogs
